Sensitive and accurate detection of biomolecules and proteins has applications in various areas including food analysis, environmental, toxicology, pharmaceutical and clinical analysis. Immunoassays are a sensitive, accurate and quick way to identify the specific molecule and they are based on the ability of antibodies to bind to a specific molecular structure of the antigen and formation of antigen-antibody complex to isolate and identify the analytes of interest. Antibodies are proteins that can be produced by injecting a foreign molecule into the animal and can be found in the blood and tissue fluid. Antibodies bind specific to the antigens, since they are produced against three dimensional structure of the antigen, and when monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies are purified from the blood are ideal reagents for detecting target molecules with high specificity. So, due to the advantages of immunoassays and immunosensors such as specificity and high sensitivity, great attention has been paid to this field. Nanostructures because of advantages such as high surface to volume ratio can be useful to improve detection limit and making miniaturized devices. Nanostructures can be used as biomarkers for detection or as a solid support that immunoreactions can occur on it.
This paper describes the development of immunoassays, methods to produce antibodies and to improve the performance and optimize analyte detection systems.